Bikin' and relaxin' in Moab

Spent a long weekend in Moab. Shot some video. I'm working on learning After Effects and Magic Bullet. Feel free to laugh at the animated van, I giggle every time I see it. It's kind of lame but it was a good learning experience.

I do. Just got it. Its only a 3 stop and it's a soft gradient so not ideal but it helped. Need to get a solid one.

I actually don't think a single shot was with a tripod.

so the super steady shots in the beginning, those weren't a tripod? How did you steady the camera?

I thought it was a fun video. As far as critique.?.?.?.

I liked the neil young to start. It set the mood well for a friendly video.

I thought the misfits were a little high-energy for the riding I was watching. I'm not dissing the riding, just the misfits were a little out of sync for the riding from my very humble point of view. The first shot fit, the rest slowed down and was out of sync... I would have liked to seen tidbits of lifestyle thrown into, sparingly mind you, the riding montage. I'm not being a dirty hippy, I grew up loving the screeching weasel, but I thought the beginning was strong, turned a 180, and while there was nothing bad about the second half, the first half was a little stronger in production value. Now, I really wanna go bike riding in moab. I've camped. I've climbed. I really think biking looks like the best way to do that place. The cracks and Indian Creek were sick, but, there's good climbing in yose, biking there looks fuuuun....

I thought the DOF's were fine, a little smaller would be good. But that's a total matter of taste. The second shot, grabbing the gas nozzle was good. The taking off the cap was less good because everything was hidden behind the door.

I know these are nits... But I liked the video, as far as comments go, these are nits that I think would make the video stronger. 'Course, I don't shoot video. And I'm a bit of a hack photographer. Definitely a weekend warrior these days...

D: if you're going to have a song that fast, tighten up that editing a BUNCH. Lots of those shots were on screen for far too long. A few seconds is all it takes to shot the meat of most of them. And yes that means shoot more

It felt like we shot a bunch but I definitely needed more footage. All the bike shots but 1 were from the same trail, same day. That trail is so rad, we didn't really do it justice but we didn't put a ton of effort or time into the filming either.

I forgot to mention that this was also my first edit using Premiere. I had been using FCPX but I'm definitely thinking I like PP a lot better.

Get tighter at the gas station. If you're gonna shoot wide open you want to have a large separation between fore- and background to play with DOF. The closer you are the bigger the difference will show between 10" from the camera and 15".

Zipcode shot was too long - should sequence with wide of pump, closeup of fingers punching digits from the side, closeup of "Thank You" on pump. Follow with close-up of spigot going into gas hole... etc.

Sequencing small action like that is usually Wide>tight>tighter.

Don't forget reverse/reaction/cutaway shots.

Editing camera moves (pans, tilts, zooms) is made easier by starting neutral and having a set destination in mind. Count in your head - 3 seconds>Move for max 5 seconds>hold for 3 seconds more.

Don't worry about getting it "right" Capture the shots you want, fill in with shots you can use to tie them together. A close-up of a flower/cactus/critter can be shot anywhere but can be inserted into any sequence where you are stuck in continuity.

I would have liked the dog shots to be shot from dog eye-level, not down.

Actually, I really, really appreciate it. I do enjoy this and want to get better at it. I'm starting from scratch and teaching myself, as well as trying to mimic other stuff I see online that I like. Any tips or pointers are really appreciated.

What's a reverse/reaction/cutaway?

Originally Posted by grskier

Who pumps regular unleaded!?!

I do when I'm cruising around in a 1987 E-250 with a 460 V8 that gets 9 MPG around town. If there was a cheaper option, I'd be pumping that.

Imagine what you shot as telling a story from one person's view of the world, who happens to be a camera - the "A" camera. Your story reads: I saw this, then I saw this, then this... etc.

Reverses/cutaways/reaction shots are for showing the world outside the scope of the main camera's view. It sets the context of the action. If you're shooting things simultaneously from 2 vantage points it would be called the "B" camera. Its story reads: This is what it looked like from over here, this is where it happened, this is what was going on in the other direction... etc.

When you only have one camera you need to force yourself to act like you have 2 - shoot the action (in the film days the "A" camera's film roll, AKA the "A-Roll.") Then you MUST shoot the "B" camera perspective, AKA the "B-Roll." Lack of the latter will most fuck you in the edit, since you will need it to change between sequences.

You've done this intuitively in your shoot. The Dog, the Girlfriend, etc. Now next time focus equally on the B-Roll and you'll have more leeway to tell compelling stories.